Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early QB Rankings Show

In his offense repeatedly, Dionne Lewis, Julian Edelman, Rob Grankowski. He dealt with Brandon LaFelle. The man without hands. Brandon LaFelle has moved on. The garbage can. They couldn't get rid of. It's such a zero-sum game in the NFL, isn't it? Because you can go from basically a one last year to three games of looking like you can't catch to see you later, hit the bricks. I mean...

It's just incredible. That's the Patriot way. Well, it's really the NFL, too. I mean, you see that with kickers, right? You miss a few kicks. See you later. Goodbye. It doesn't matter who you are. Yeah. Tom Brady is a guy that I've really heated up on. Coming into last year, you know, one of the things with Tom Brady, I just spoke of those great NFL quarterbacks that aren't always great for fantasy. And there was a big chunk of Tom Brady's career where he was still one of the...

you know, two best quarterbacks in the NFL, but they really relied on a run game, and he wasn't the best fantasy quarterback, always overdrafted. Well, over the last, you know, he had that crazy 50 touchdown year, and then he got injured the next one. I remember that. Thanks, Andy, for unloading him to me. You're welcome. But since he came back, he had a slow start, and after that, he is a touchdown machine, 36, 39, 35, 33, and a 25 mixed in there, 36 last year. So you've got,

A lot of touchdowns. Tom Brady is as surefire a fantasy star when he's playing as there is at the position. But I want to say this because this is kind of an evergreen show. We're recording this early. People are going to listen to our quarterback shows for a long time. And we don't know the news that will come out. We have to keep the suspension in mind. So you want to talk about the deflate gate? The possible looming deflate gate that kind of was a big scare last year. And then, hey, he got to play all the games.

This year it might sneak up on us. So it's just one of those things where if you're drafting early for some reason, I would right now give him a seven or eight on my risk factor because I think there's a legitimate chance that he misses four games. And if you're investing a high, if you're taking him in a fourth round and you're missing a quarter of the season, your fantasy season's done. Now I have Brady at four. You guys both have him at three. Is that correct? That's very possible. And also this is why I have him at four in.

uh in six points scoring okay so the why i like tom brady for everything that uh jason was talking about where he hasn't necessarily been the best fantasy quarterback because of the running game however at this point in time they have re-signed le garrett blunt and dion lewis is set to be the primary running back again assuming he recovers from that acel tear that to me says tom brady is going to sling it you know 600 times again

So I think the passing numbers will be there. They don't have a Stephen Ridley guy, let Garrett Blunt for what he can do. They can't ride him the entire season. So it's going to be up to Brady to put up the points, which will be great for fantasy. All right. Number four on our consensus list is Russell Wilson. He's my number three, Jason's four, Mike's five. I'm going to make the contention right now that Russell Wilson has the highest upside of any quarterback that can be drafted.

because of where you'll get him and what he did at the end of the year. And I don't want to over-emphasize his last eight games. However, I do want to bring them to your attention because it could mean a new way forward. I think most of us believe the Seahawks without March and Lynch are going to be more dependent on Russell Wilson. It doesn't mean he'll do what he did in last eight games, but let me just put that in perspective. If you take his last eight games and you just duplicate it for a season,

It's 50 touchdowns. It's 50 passing touchdowns. It's 4,500 passing yards and 500 attempts at the quarterback position. You mix that together with, I think he ran for in the 400, 500 range, maybe a little lower this past year because he was throwing the ball so well. Running? Yeah, 553 yards. So 550 on the ground with the pace that he had last year. Russell Wilson, where is he going right now?

In draft. Russell Wilson right now is the fifth quarterback off the board. What round? Going in the fifth round. So I think... There's a better value. You're basically saying, look, Cam Newton. Cam Newton last year was the combination of a lot of touchdowns through the air, passing yards, and he had the legs. Russell Wilson has the chance to do exactly that, if not the potential for that or even more.

and he's being drafted later. Certainly a better value in Russell Wilson than in Cam Newton because like I said earlier, right, the first two rounds is where I don't want to give up one of those picks. The third, I consider it. The fifth, I'm fine with. I'm trying to find the place where you talk about getting the sweats for Aaron Rogers in the third round.

I'd rather take Russell Wilson in the fifth round than Aaron Rogers in the third round. I'd rather take Russell Wilson in the fifth than Cam Newton in the third or fourth round even. Well, and what you look for is of value too. So if Russell Wilson's ADP is the fifth, that means you might be in a draft where he drops deep into the sixth round. And at that point...

That's hard to, you know, if you're getting Russell Wilson who can easily finish as, you know, a top three option, he has been good for fantasy for several years, even when they haven't been in a passing quarterback. Yeah, and he gives you a baseline every week, even in the beginning of the season. No, it was a different baseline. Oh, what was it? Yeah, that was it. It's different. It wasn't very deep. It was just a baseline.

So anyway, I wanted to bring that to the attention because I think he might represent the most upside mixed with value in the draft of any of those players. A lot of people are going to draft Brady much higher than he did last year. You know, you put those two guys in the same round. I'm going to have a hard time picking between Brady and Russell Wilson. But I think I'm out on the Cam Newton's. I'm out on Aaron Rogers. I'm probably out on the Brady's. I think Wilson is the first time I start going, you know, if I have a really nice first four rounds in the draft and I'm feeling real good about myself.

I'm at least going to think for a split second about it. It will not be hard for me because I'll be passing. Yeah, I think I would normally, I don't take. Just like Russell Wilson. That's very fair. I don't normally take a quarterback until like round eight or so. So that's probably still too rich for my blood, but the value is there. And I think if you are one of those guys that can't pass up quarterbacks early, this is where you look at. You act like that it's a condition. Like, if you've made up in your mind that you're, you know.

Biologically, you're incapable of giving up a quarterback in the first five rounds. I've got a fever. And the only prescription is a quarterback is an early quarterback. Do you have, do you, DQE drafting quarterback early? That was right. Is this the commercial? That was the commercial for it. Wait, wait, wait. If we're doing a commercial, then you need to drop some. A lot of men. Do you or someone you know suffer from DQE?

Has it plagued you and your fantasy team over the last five years? Do your running backs suffer often after the draft because you had to invest so highly at the quarterback position? But we have a solution for you. Russell Wilson. Stop it. Russell Wilson. Oh, we hadn't, how did I not break the Russell Wilson out for a long time? I was surprised that Russell Wilson was announced with his regular name. We're coming out with a medication that you can actually order.

online for DQE. It's called the Ultimate Draft Kit. It's called the Kirk Cousins pill of streamers that, because everybody who lost, we have so many Foot Clan members that won championships, everybody who lost has the same story. Yeah. Kirk Cousins killed me. I went up against him and Reed in the championship game. All right, let's move on. Speaking of value. I'm surprised, this is the most surprising guy on the list so far.

Number five on the list is not Andrew Luck. Nope. It is Drew. Drew Breeze. Drew Breeze. He is three on Mike's, six on Jason and myself. So Mike, the floor is yours somehow. He is eighth on the average persons, which just represents a really, your average draft position right now, he's the eighth quarterback taking. See, we all. When you said average person, I thought you were talking about yourself. Oh, may I remind you champion?

Could I interest you in a quarterback who has thrown for 30 or more touchdowns in over 4,300 yards for eight straight seasons? Is that true? I'll take one. Could I interest you in that? Because that is exactly who Drew Breeze is. Now, look, I understand that it was a little rough to start the year with Breeze. The offense had to find its way. They had gotten rid of Jimmy Graham.

They weren't, Brandon Cooks was not, was not fully ready to be the man in New Orleans. And now you bring in a guy, or once they finally said, hey, let's go to, let's get the tight end involved in Ben Watson. Then the offense really got cooking. I'm going to make an argument for you, though. Okay. I think that was an illusion. It was an illusion, it was a perceptive illusion about Drew Brees in the start of the season. Because if you look at his splits from the eight game mark, eight before, eight after,

They are nearly identical. Really? Same touchdown pace, almost the same yardage, same yards per attempt. He's on 34 touchdown pace for both of them, almost the same attempts per game. But what you had is started the year real bad in three games, had the seven touchdown game that balanced out his first half of the season stats-wise. But I'm just making the argument that you just said what you said about him having all these years doing the same old thing. Well, he just did the same old thing all season long.

But nobody paid attention. I was going to call you out on that seven touchdown game because that's more than, I mean, that's an absurd amount of touchdowns before that game, which that game didn't happen until week eight. How many touchdowns did he have before that single game, Andy? Less than eight. Eight.

Eight touchdowns. Eight total. But no. So that just bound. When you do the game split of halfway in the season, I get what you're saying. The first seven games, he had eight total touchdown. So it did take, it did take a minute to realize what is our team, what is, you know, finding their way. Without Jimmy Graham, who was their main target. And that's why going in the last year, I was a little bit down on Drew Brees. He was a year older. He lost his main target. Things weren't looking great. This year,

I like him a lot because it's the exact opposite. I mean, he's not a year younger, but he's got Kobe Fleener coming in, who is much younger than Ben Watson. Brandon Cook's a year older and more developed. Willie Sneed now has established a role. I look at great. Goblin up.

Targets. Yeah, exactly. You found out, oh, he can catch the ball. So now you have so many weapons for him. For him to be the eighth quarterback off the board in average drafts, that's probably my first target. The way that you're saying Russell Wilson might be the first guy you're genuinely looking at. For me, if I can get Drew Breeze in the seventh or eighth round, if he could drop there, I won't pass him. All right. Number six on the consensus ranking, and we've got to move through these guys. It's fun to talk about them.

And we will. So Andrew Luck, he deserves some conversation. Yes. Is he somebody that can, let me ask you this. Do you believe that Andrew Luck could be the number one quarterback this year? Yes. Absolutely. I believe it's, I would, as far as like, do I think it's going to happen? No. But does he have the chance? Yes. I agree completely with that. I don't, obviously we're not projecting him to be the number one, but he has the talent, right? He's done it before. Now, Jason and I both have luck, one spot ahead of Breeze.

Mike has him lower. Obviously, Breeze is number three on Mike's list. So Andrew Luck, he gets to come back from injury. He's on the cusp of a big contract. This team was supposed to have all the offensive weapons together. Is this a case of kind of what we saw with Aaron Rogers, only even worse, where it just didn't work this year. It wasn't going to be their year. They mixed and matched the Frank Gors and the Andre Johnson's and these other pieces. Yeah, I think that's fair. But what I don't, what.

I hope people don't expect is 2014 over 4,700 yards, and 40 touchdowns. Right. I mean, he went 23 touchdowns rookie year, 23 sophomore year, 40 touchdowns. He was on pace for about 30. That's perfectly fine. If you want to give Andrew Luck the low 30s and touchdowns,

He was on pace for almost that many interceptions, too. Yeah. Well, he's always been a high interception guy, but last year was especially bad. And while he was playing, he was throwing for an average of six yards per throw, which is per attempt. That was brutal. Second to last only to Case Keenum. And so. Whenever you're in a stat and Case Keenum is the comp? Yeah. Oh, you got to quit. Not good. But obviously, he was drafted number one overall.